In mid-February I started hearing about reports of a Tundra Bean-Goose being seen in Rhode Island. That would be a life bird for me, but it would require a 2-day one-way drive, or a lengthy plane flight, so I didn’t put it on my radar screen. But then a local western NC birding friend sent me a text that he went up there and saw the Goose with only limited effort. With just a bit of research I found out that the bird had been seen nearly daily for almost a month in a reasonably small area in Portsmouth, RI. In other words, the Goose seemed to be pretty reliable. And since my daughter lives in Providence just a half hour away, I could make it into a little visit with her as well. The die was cast – I made my plane and rental car reservations to arrive in just 4 days and hoped that the bird would continue in the region.
Now it was time to do more detailed research. The Bean-Goose was being seen during the day with Canada Geese feeding in a number of different corn fields and pastures throughout the northern end of Aquidneck Island near Portsmouth. (I birded that area numerous times during my days in New England and remember large flocks of wintering geese using the area.) In the evening the goose flocks would come into Lawton Valley Reservoir to roost overnight, providing viewing opportunities both in the evening and the following morning. At least that was its M.O. early in its stay. It was actually last seen during the day nearly 2 weeks before my trip, though there weren’t too many people searching. And the target bird was sometimes missed in the evenings if the goose flocks didn’t arrive early enough for an ID in the waning light. As a result, the most likely time to see the bird now appeared to be in the early morning at the reservoir. Luckily, I set up my trip to be on the ground in RI for 3 evenings and 3 mornings. So even if it was no longer being seen during the day feeding, I figured I’d still have plenty of chances to find the Bean-Goose at its overnight roost.
I flew into the Providence airport mid-morning on February 21, and had a quick visit with my daughter before heading off to Portsmouth. My plan was to first check the fields where the Bean-Goose used to be seen foraging, though I didn’t like my chances. Then by 4 PM or so I’d head to the reservoir to wait for the geese to start coming to roost. And if I missed my target that evening, there was always the next morning.
As expected, I found few geese in the fields: just 50 at the local high school ball fields, and 125 at the car museum parking lot across from the reservoir. As a result, I was done checking the fields by 1 PM, so I headed over to the reservoir just in case my target came in early that day. To my surprise there were 250 Canada Geese already swimming on the reservoir – certainly critical mass to find my target. But despite lots of scans, the Bean-Goose just wasn’t there. Within 30 minutes all of these birds had left. And at 2:30 a bigger flock flew in. This group numbered 380, but again no target bird, though a Cackling Goose was a nice find. And within a half hour these birds flew off too.
The reservoir was nearly devoid of geese from 3 through 5 PM, though I continued my vigil scanning the reservoir in the single-digit wind chills. I started to wonder if the geese coming in to roost that night. And worse yet, I worried that since I didn’t see large flocks that afternoon, had all the gese moved out of the area. But then finally at 5:15, after the sun had already set on the reservoir, a flock of at least 1,000 geese descended on the lake. Another birder was there with me at that point, and we were only able to make 3 or 4 hurried scans of the geese before we called it quits due to the failing light. If only they had come in earlier we would have had more time to look for the Bean-Goose. Then again, maybe the flock of Canadas it was with wasn’t even there yet. After 6 hours of searching, as I expected, I’d have to come back the next morning to find out.
Sometimes roosting waterfowl will leave their overnight roost at first light. But recent morning reports from the Lawton reservoir generally suggested the roosting geese stuck around the lake well into the morning. As I drove to the site on the 22nd I hoped that would be the case. I arrived just after 7 to see 2 birders already there. And this was the view of the geese below us – at least 1,000 birds roosting on the edge of the ice near the southern end of the reservoir.
The “closest” geese were still at least 100 yards away, and the farther birds to the right in the picture were at least triple that distance. And they were all sleeping in a dense flock, which meant it was tough to see field marks.
And then I noticed even more geese on the ice at the far northern end of the reservoir. There were perhaps another 1,000 geese in that distant flock, more than 300 yards away. Even with my scope on 50 power it was nearly impossible to see field marks on the tightly packed birds. But at least it seemed that all the geese were still there.
Here’s a screenshot from Google Maps showing where we were standing – the red X, where the close geese were sleeping on the ice – at the number 1, and the distant geese on the ice – at the number 2.
Now it was time to get to work. I first scanned the closest sleeping birds hoping to pick out a bird that had a brown head and neck instead of the black neck and white cheek patch of a Canada. Then I started looking at the geese farther to the right and soon picked out a possible candidate. It seemed to have a brown head, and the chest was not nearly as pale as the Canadas. I got the other birders on this bird and we all thought it was a possibility. But we couldn’t see the horizontal white stripe on the flank that others noted on the Bean-Goose when it was sleeping. We all focused on this bird for a while before it briefly lifted its head and it was indeed black – it was just a Canada. Later I found a similar candidate on the ice, and I stared at this one for a while too. But without the white flank stripe, it too was going to be a Canada. We were just trying too hard. I scanned the close flock numerous times, and even tried scanning the farther flock a bit, but just kept coming up with Canadas, or geese on which I could see no field marks at all.
At about 9 AM a number of the close geese started to stir, and some walked off the ice into the water. Now that I had good views, I quickly scanned these birds but still only came up with Canadas. Perhaps 500 geese were now swimming, and maybe the other half of the close flock was still sleeping on the ice. But I really felt like I had good views of the birds in the water, and reasonable views of the sleeping birds now that the flock wasn’t as densely packed. So I was pretty sure that our target just wasn’t in the close flock.
It was now 9:30, and since I had pretty much given up on the close flock, I started to strategize a way to get closer to the farther flock. I could hike up to the top of the dam of the reservoir and walk to the north which would actually get me quite close, assuming that was legal to do of course. But I decided to do just a couple more scans of the close flock before changing my location. And just then I noticed 2 geese swimming by the edge of the ice. One had a brown head without the white cheek patch – I instantly knew I had the Tundra Bean-Goose! With closer views I quickly ticked off all the other salient field marks – a bit smaller and shorter necked than the Canadas, horizontal white flank patch, pale streaks in the mantle and tail, and orange tip to the bill.
We watched if for the next half hour as it swam mostly out in the open among Canadas. Here are my two best phone-scoped shots of the bird more than 200 yards away.
After 10 hours of searching over 2 days in single-digit wind chills, it was most satisfying to finally find my target Tundra Bean-Goose. It was one of my longest ever searches for a life bird (first place goes to a Blue Bunting requiring 4 separate trips to south TX). Though this was the first life bird chase that also afforded me a nice visit with my daughter.
By my records (following ABA’s countability rules), the Tundra Bean-Goose was #774 for my ABA Continental list, and #754 for my Lower 48 list. By eBird’s count it was #778 in the ABA Continental region and #757 for the Lower 48. (Someday I’ll have to figure out the source of those differences.) And it was #336 for my RI state list.
